At least 16 Louisiana students had their visas revoked earlier this month, making them subject to deportation or detention. The two Tulane students’ visas were revoked by the federal government for prior criminal activity, not protesting, according to a Tulane University spokesperson.
On Friday, a justice department lawyer announced during a court hearing the Trump administration would reinstate the student visas while Immigration and Customs Enforcement designs a new policy that will “provide a framework for status record termination.”
Across the state, seven students from Southern University have lost visas, three from the University of New Orleans, two from Southern University at New Orleans and three from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, the Louisiana Illuminator first reported.
Tulane has released no identifying information about the students.
“The safety and well-being of our students is our top priority. We are aware of two students whose visas have been revoked based on prior criminal arrests unrelated to any protest activity. The university is in contact with the impacted students and has directed them to third-party legal resources,” a spokesperson for Tulane said.
Around the country, more than 1,800 students and recent graduates have faced changes to their visa legal status since the Trump administration’s crackdown on protest activity and immigration, according to reporting from Inside Higher Ed.
The Trump administration has given no explicit justification for the change in visa status for the Louisiana students. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to deport foreign citizens who “support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to our national security.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has invoked a rarely used provision of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the secretary of state to revoke visas if an individual’s presence in the U.S. “would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”
In the crackdown, the administration has given special attention to universities with high profile pro-Palestine protests, including Tulane. In March, Tulane received a letter from the U.S. Department of Education on Monday stating that they are under investigation for alleged “relentless antisemitic eruptions.”
Rep. Cleo Fields from Baton Rouge has called on the Trump administration to explain why the students’ visas were revoked from Southern University, a historically Black college. In a letter to federal officials, he demands a “transparent explanation” of any alleged violations and the reinstatement of the visas during an investigation.
It is unclear how the legal proceedings for the 16 affected students will play out.
According to immigration lawyer Eric Lee, who is representing Momodou Taal, a Cornell University graduate student who had his visa revoked for pro-Palestinian activism, this aggressive attack on student visas is unprecedented.
“There has never been an effort of this character to stop the population from hearing views which are critical of the president, of American government, of American culture and its institutions, whatever that may mean,” Lee said in an interview with The Chronicle of Higher Education.